Results 3,471 to 3,480 of 4513
-
October 27th, 2007 09:16 PM #3471
Ekwe Willing to Undergo Naturalization and Play for Phil. Team
The Daily Tribune
Oct. 27, 2007
http://www.tribune.net.ph/sports/20071027spo7.html
There’s a foreigner knocking on the door of Team Philippines.
Sam Ekwe yesterday became the first foreign player to formally express his intent in joining the men’s national basketball team through the process of naturalization.
Ekwe, the 6-foot-9 Nigerian behemoth who dominated the lanes when San Beda College swept Letran College in the recent NCAA Finals, said the country has been his home and there’s no better way of returning the favor than playing for the national squad. He said he is willing to go through the process of naturalization for him to formally acquire Filipino citizenship.
“Yes, why not?” Ekwe said during the Anta Collegiate Awards the other night where he was chosen as the 2007 NCAA San Miguel Defensive Player of the Year. “I love the Philippines, I love staying here and I’ll be happy to play for them only if they will allow me to.”
And it seems Ekwe, or any naturalized Filipino, is what the doctor ordered for Team Philippines to steer the country back to its lofty status in the Asian region.
In 1983, the country used seven naturalized citizens in the 1983 Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) tournament in Hong Kong. Though the squad swept the eliminations, the victories were forfeited after International Basketball Federation (Fiba) mandated that they should be informed about the naturalization process two years before the actual competition.
The last time the country banked on the naturalized citizens was in 1986 when Chip Engelland, Jeff Moore and Dennis Steele powered Northern Consolidated Cement (NCC) to an ABC title in Malaysia. ABC is now known as Fiba-Asia, the same tournament where the FIlipinos placed ninth when it was held in Tokushima, Japan this year.
Though it’s quite late, BAP-Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (BAP-SBP) executive director Patrick “Pato” Gregorio said Ekwe will be a big addition to the squad trying to reclaim the crown in the 24th Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.
He said hiring Ekwe, who has BAP-SBP president Manny Pangilinan as godfather in the Red Lions’ camp, has already crossed his mind, but he later on junked its possibility thinking that the mild-mannered native of Lagos, Nigeria might turn him down. But now that Ekwe has personally signified his intention, he could possibly help him in fast-tracking his papers in the Bureau of Immigration.
“It was such a patriotic move,” Gregorio said. “It really crossed my mind because he has been here for more than two years and he already knows our culture pretty well. I know we’ll be a basketball powerhouse again once he’s around.”
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Tsikot Member Rank 5
- Join Date
- Oct 2002
- Posts
- 3,144
-
October 28th, 2007 05:24 PM #3479
-
October 28th, 2007 06:15 PM #3480
Sell your car quickly and easily with carforcash.ae, the trusted platform for getting the best cash...
Help looking for Audi service shop (non-PGA)